Dancing
by mypiratecat1
Summary: PostAWE. Just a fun one shot that I wrote in honor of At World's End. Jack and Will's conversation while sailing the Pearl through very rough seas! Enjoy!


_Disclaimer: Nope, not mine!_

_**Author's note: **__I am sitting here, relaxing and drinking Captain Morgan (really!), and I felt like writing something fun in honor of "At World's End" being released this week. In many of my own little pirate fics, our trio has survived all of the trouble At World's End, Will and Elizabeth are married, and have joined Jack on the Pearl. It's a pirate's life for all of us! Enjoy, mates! Pirate Cat_

The sea had been rough since way before dawn... it was hurricane season in the Caribbean, and the Black Pearl was on the last leg of her journey back from World's End. The exhausted crew had all taken to their hammocks with seasickness... even the most seasoned of sailors could be overcome with nausea in waters as wild as these were. The only crewmen that were above deck to guide the Pearl on her way were her legendary captain, and his new and, due to events in the Far East,equally legendary first mate. Together, they had fought common enemies and had prevailed... this was not to say that they had been completely victorious against their adversaries, but that they had escaped with their very precious, mortal lives, which was good enough for them.

The Pearl rocked up one side of each massive wave, only to dip her bow downward so steeply that First Mate William Turner felt his stomach lurch with each move of the ship. He was attempting to help Captain Jack Sparrow hang on to the wheel with all of his might. Water sprayed up over the sides of the ship, and both them were soaked to the skin.

The captain was completely enjoying himself, moving his body along with his ship with the utmost grace that Will almost envied, dipping himself to and fro, leaning in as the ship went upward and then leaning back as she crested each wave and nosed down. He smiled widely as he planted his feet wide apart, hair flying wildly and slender hands gripping the wheel until his knuckles were white. He cast a sidelong glance to his companion, and with sparkling dark eyes he yelled above the water, "Look at us, William! Not unlike th' time tha' we commandeered th' Interceptor, jus' th' two of us, eh?" Jack grinned wickedly at his first mate.

Will nodded back to his captain, and grinned, "Aye, Jack, but I should like to think that I am a better sailer, now! If the seas were this heavy on the way to Tortuga, I would have been pitched overboard directly!"

Jack leaned forward forward as the Pearl took on another huge wall of water, "... Will! Try this! Hold on wi' one hand, savvy???" Will could not believe his eyes. Just as the Pearl crested, Jack let go with one hand and raised it above his head! The ship's timbers groaned as she slowly moved over the top of the wave, and tumbled downward on the back side, as Jack uncharacteristically whooped with glee. Will felt as though the very deckboards beneath his own feet were falling away, and yet Jack was hanging on with one hand like he was riding a wild horse!

Just then, a rogue wave hit the ship on one side and caused the entire ship to shudder oddly, throwing the slight and slender captain off balance. He lost his balance, and fell forward, smacking his nose hard against the ship's wheel.

"OI! OW!!! Bugger!!!"

"Jack! Are you alright?" Will kept a tight hold on the wheel as the captain's free hand flew up to his face. For the briefest of moments, there was only the sound of the roaring water and straining timbers of the tossing Pearl. Jack looked down at his hand... it was bloodied. Will was shocked, as the captain did something that Will had never witnessed in the nearly three years since they had first met... _he laughed out loud_! A husky, booming, lusty laugh that sounded as if it came from Jack's very heart and soul. Will feared that Jack's brain was finally fully scrambled. He interrupted Jack's merriment with a concerned yell above the surf,

"Your nose is bleeding like hell, and you're _laughing???_"

Jack turned to Will and struggled to control his giggling. "We're dancin' wif a beautiful lady, lad!!! Me Pearl just _kissed _me! A bit of a love tap tha' I'll wager she never shared wif Hector Barbossa, eh?"

Will clung to the wheel as the ship strained to climb yet another wave... Jack grabbed the wheel with both hands, again, and looked at Will, earnestly,

"Don'tcha see, William? I'm laughin' because I'm bleedin'...I'm bleedin' because... I'm _alive_." There was bare, raw emotion in Jack's dark eyes and an honest smile upon his face, and Will nodded slowly with understanding. He and Jack had both been to hell and back, literally, and Will suddenly also felt Jack's elation... his elation at being alive, able to feel, able to bleed... it was more liberating, more intoxicating than an any cache of good rum.

Will looked out over the living sea as if seeing it with new eyes... he then looked back at a grinning Jack with his bloodied nose and his hat knocked sideways. Will could not help but also laugh out loud. As the Pearl crested the wave that she had been climbing, William joined Jack in letting go of the wheel with one hand, and they both gleefully yelled like small children as the Pearl careened through the water and bottomed out, only to take on the next wave... and the next one... and the next one...

The young first mate watched his captain bob and weave, taking the ocean's spray full in his face, dancing with his dark lady. William felt like dancing, also. Life was good. The pair held on to the wheel together, as the mighty Black Pearl lead a joyful dance...

... a joyful dance to fully celebrate simply being _alive_...


End file.
